So, I know that April is almost over... (seriously? how?) but I thought - better late than never posting my March pages from my ARTifacts journal! They've actually been done for over a week, so I'm only really behind instead of incredibly behind.

So without further ado, here's the title page for March along with my artsy goals for the month.

The background uses Tattered Angels Natural Aging paints (love them!) and some old Basic Grey rubons. (I've been hoarding these for years - it was a big moment when I forced myself to finally use them!)

The left side has photos attached to a journaling card that flips up (attached with the Crystals MT washi tape,) and I used a scrap from a Spellbinders diecut as the tab.

On the right, I have a VERY old stitched diecut from L'il Davis Designs and then I attached a tag with more washi tape - this is the Jakten pattern. There are more diecut scraps here, scraps of fiber trim, and a punched tab.

On the back side of the tab I included one of the ATCs I got back from our swap.

Hi everyone! Welcome to day 2 of this week's blog hop with StencilGirl Products and Amazing Casting Products! I'm excited to be joining in since I love using molds and resin in my work, and using them with stencils was even more fun!

For this project I took some left-over packaging (it was the box from the ceramic Peking Opera mask that I used in a panel I shared last week,) and turned it into a decorated case for a mini handmade book. Can you tell where I used molds and resin with my stencils?

I put together a little tutorial for you, including a fun technique I came up with using Amazing Casting Products mold making putty and resin with a few of my stencil designs.

First up, my new technique. I wanted to use some of my new Art Deco stencils (here I'm using my Art Deco Borders stencil,) but I wanted to work with a smaller size. So, I inked the part of the design I wanted to use onto a piece of Shinky Dink film.

Next I used an X-Acto knife to cut out the inside pieces. Since this was going to shrink a lot, and since it takes a fair amount of effort to cut through the film, I only cut out the details I really wanted to have show that were big enough to look good in a much smaller size.

Then I cut around the outside of the design with a pair of sharp scissors. I repeated this process using my Art Deco Medallion stencil, then followed the instructions on the package to shrink them in my oven. It did take a few tries reheating and uncurling the plastic for the medallion, but in the end, they both worked!

Now that I had my stenciled designs in a smaller, 3D version, I could move on to the next step - making molds so that I could create multiples! (Please keep in mind that all of StencilGirl's stencil designs are copyrighted, so you should only do this for your personal use, or for use in one-of-a-kind artwork that you sell.)

Then I took some white casting resin and cast both molds. When they were cured (which only takes about 15 minutes!) I cleaned them up a bit and then they were ready to use!

Before I started I had a few ideas for how I'd planned to use these, but once I got to this point I realized that the shapes I'd picked would fit together perfectly to make some really cool embellishments! I got out my Aves Apoxie Clay and mixed up a small amount to start connecting things together and then to start adding to the structure.

You can see above (middle photo) where I added thin ropes of clay around the edges as a border and then used it to start adding other bits onto the structure. I also put dots of clay in a few spaces and then indented the middles in order to create a space to add a jewel or pearl or something later on.

Next up, I painted it. I used gold and bronze metallic acrylic paints as well as a patina colored paint to make it all more cohesive. I also added a metal gear and a random piece of Turkmen jewelry and painted those as well so they'd all go together.

You can see in the photo above right that I did end up adding some jewels, and also glued one of my embellishments to a scrap of Chiyogami paper so that you could see some of the color and pattern through the holes.

With that done, I set my new embellishments aside to dry and started working on the box. I taped off the metal corners and spine (it had a cool design I wanted to keep) and then gesso'd the whole thing.

Then I used metallic gold and turquoise paints... you can see where I used my heat gun to bubble them a bit (I love the texture it adds!)

With the outsides of the box painted and ready to embellish, I started working on the inside. First, I stenciled a piece of blue mulberry paper with my Art Deco Sunburst Background stencil and bronze paint.

I tore those down to the sizes I want and then adhered them (inking the edges of the piece for the inside cover first.)

To embellish the inside cover, I decided to use another molded piece. This time I made a mold of an old vintage metal face that was sent to me from Latvia and then cast that with resin and painted it to look like the original piece.

The resin takes paint so well - it was actually almost hard to tell which was the original when I was done!

Once dry, I took my new embellishment and layered it with some other metal pieces and adhered them to the inside of the cover.

Next up, to embellish the back of the box, I taped off a section of my Art Deco Borders stencil so that I could just stencil the middle circle I wanted to use. I stenciled on deli paper with pigment ink and then heat embossed with a mix of Emerald Creek embossing powders.

I cut that out and adhered with matte medium.

To finish off the inside of the box, I attached some different trims, then added a bit of gold dimensional paint.

Whew... that's done. Back to the outside of the box!

With my resin & clay medallions cured and dried, I could finish up the cover. I adhered the medallion with the Turkmen jewelry pieces to the front in the center, then used a Tsukineko irRESISTible Pico Embellisher to fill in some of the stenciled sections.

Voila! The cover is done!

While that dried, I moved on to make the handmade book that would fit inside. I measured to see how big it could be, then cut down some pieces of Davey board and made a little 3"x5" book using the single-sheet Coptic binding. I painted the covers with a turquoise background paint by Matisse, then used a section of my Art Deco Bookplates stencil and some gold pigment ink to stencil the cover.

I heat embossed the stenciled area with gold embossing powder, then adhered my other resin and clay medallion into the center and embellished it with some acrylic rhinestones.

When all was dry, I put the book into the box - all ready to have the pages filled and to be a fun display piece when I wasn't using it.

Here are a few more photos and close-ups of the finished project so you can see some of the details:

There you go! I hope you enjoyed today's project and tutorial. Of course, this wouldn't be a blog hop without a GIVEAWAY!

One lucky winner will receive both a $25 Gift Certificate to StencilGirl ProductsAND a $25 Gift Certificate to Amazing Casting Products!

Visit the fabulous designers from both teams and comment for your chance to win!

The more blogs you comment on, the more chances you have to WIN! (One comment per person per blog please.)

You have until Sunday, April 23rd at 11:59PM Central Time to leave your comments.

Hi everyone! I'm up on the StencilGirl blog today with the April edition of Gwen's Gems, which also happens to be a collaborative post with Canvas Corp Brands!

This month I have a tutorial for this art journal spread using lots of awesome Canvas Corp Brands products (like a 7 Gypsies journal and papers, and some amazing Tattered Angels natural aging paints,) and using some of my new Art Deco stencils, of course!

Make sure you head on over to see more photos and the tutorial. Also, there's a GIVEAWAY! Make sure you go to StencilGirl Talk to see the giveaway instructions. You need to leave a comment over on that post (not this one) in order to be entered to win. Enjoy, and good luck!

Next project... another spread in my 3"x5" mini art journal. This one was pretty simple... I used gold acrylic gesso on the background, then stenciled across the middle with my Art Deco Borders stencil. I used paint markers to just start adding layers of color in the background until I liked it, then added some journaling. Easy peasy!

How about one more for today... this one was really fun and slightly unexpected to pull together!

This is the inside cover of a small 6"x8" handmade art journal. The patterned paper background was already there - that's the endpaper of the book, but it was still pretty plain so I added this tag. I had been cleaning off my stencils on it as I worked on other projects, and at one point I looked at it and realized that it had a pretty fun composition! So I started defining the images and added color with paint pens.

I'm so excited... I have new stencils releasing today from StencilGirl! It's my Art Deco collection, and it includes ten new designs that I really love. I've been sitting on these for more than six months and I'm so thrilled that I finally get to share them! Without further ado...

One more project for today... this uses my Art Deco Medallion stencil - it's goldwork embroidery (or an attempt, at least!) on iridescent silk - a piece of an upcycled sari.

I hope you like the new stencils! I'm super excited about them, and I can't wait to see what everyone makes with them! I'll share more release projects over the next few days, and definitely lots more to come in the future :) Enjoy!